Apt Child
by EccentricActress
Summary: Todd Bowden, age 6, visits the National Holocaust Museam with his family...and his twisted young mind construes some interesting thoughts. (Prequel to Apt Pupil)
1. Chapter 1

(Note: I am aware that the Holocaust Museam may not have been established at this time. I would also like to make it clear that I DO NOT support Nazis, but these are just some thoughts I considered may be running through Todd's head at this age. Also, statistics included in the pamphlet he reads are true. The pamphlet is nonexistent but the facts are real.)  
  
"Todd-baby, look at this!" Monica Bowden let her sunglasses drop to the tip of her nose and looked at a Polaroid picture in front of her. It was her 6-year-old son, Todd, standing up straight with his arms folded behind his back. His bright ivory teeth glistened in the photo, as well as his neatly-combed blonde hair. Gray-blue eyes squinting in the sun still jumped off the square photo. The yellow short-sleeved polo he was wearing hung gently on his shoulders and his khaki shorts fit around his tiny hips just so. The adorable child took away from the White House in the background, but it was still obviously in the picture.  
  
"Cool, Mom!" said Todd, who was struggling to look at the picture and still maintain to suck the last bit of vanilla ice cream from the bottom of his cone without getting it all over his clothes. All of the people the Bowden trio passed by, everyone oohd and awed at the adorable, perfect little blonde boy.   
  
They stopped in front of a building where Dick Bowden rubbed the top of his son's head.  
  
"Time to throw the ice cream away Todd."  
  
"Kay dad!"  
  
Todd threw the cone into a nearby trash can and read the sign on the door.  
  
"NO FOOD OR DRINK"  
  
He backed up and read the sign etched in marble on the top of the building.  
  
"NATIONAL HOLOCAUST MUSEAM"  
  
Todd frowned. He knew a lot of words for his young age...more than his friends, more than a lot of high-schoolers. He knew what NATIONAL meant, and MUSEAM, but HOLOCAUST was not a word he had ever heard before.  
  
"C'mon, buddy!" yelled Dick.  
  
Todd reluctantly followed. 


	2. Chapter 2

Todd grabbed a brochure from the lobby labeled "BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HOLOCAUST", tucked it under his arm and followed his parents to the children's section.   
  
For the next half hour he learned about Daniel, a young Jewish boy a little older than Todd. He started out in Daniel's room, a room with yellow walls and lots of toys. Older toys, certainly not from 1966 like Todd's were, but it generally looked like any young boy's room.   
After moving on a little further, he saw instead of a bed with linen sheets and a room with concrete walls, Daniel lived in a more unpleasant place. It was a concrete room, all gray, with mattresses covering the floor. You could still see Daniel's blanket in a corner on a beat-up beige mattress, with one teddy bear on top.   
  
When he came to a the final room, it was rickety, made of wood, like the cabin he stayed in at summer camp except much, much colder. There were old, long wooden bunks with cracks in the middle. Lots of people had to sleep in them at once, the short way, with only a few blankets to cover all of them. It sent chills down the young boy's spine.  
  
After the exhibit, Dick and Monica had a short arguement about whether or not the adult section of the museam would be appropriate for Todd. He usually would have eavesdropped on their conversation and helped his favored party argue, but Todd was far too confused about what he had seen to concentrate on something like that. He tried to resolve in his mind why the living conditions would regress like that, and decided to read the brochure to find out more.  
  
The Bowden parents finally chose to let Dick walk through the exhibit and have Monica look after Todd. Dick went down the elevator to the adult exhibit as Monica sat with Todd on a bench.  
  
"You want something to drink, Todd-baby?"  
  
"No thanks, Monica-baby, I wanna read my pamphlet!"  
  
Monica smiled as Todd swung his feet and began reading the brochure. He learned about Adolf Hitler being upset about the German economy and blaming the Jews like Daniel and his family, taking them out of their homes and putting them into concentration camps. But Todd's eyes fell on one sentance included in the brochure:  
  
i"The Nazi party recorded that German unemployment decreased by roughly 5 1/2 million people between 1933 and 1939*"/i  
  
Todd had to think about this. iIf after the Jews started to be killed, and employment went up, it must have been their fault, right? It had to at least have SOMETHING to do with them...they took all the wealth from the other people. They needed to be stopped, killed if neccesary!/i  
  
Todd shook his head. iThat's crazy. Nothing is worth more than life. But-/i  
  
"TODD-BABY! TIME TO GO!"  
  
Todd closed the pamphlet, took one last look at the cover, and dropped it on the ground. He went chasing after his mother.  
  
The pamphlet fell to the back page, where the asterik by the statistic Todd had been interested in was explained.  
  
i"*Jews were not considered citizens after 1935, so any unemployed Jews were not included in the statistics. Women were also not included in the statistics, so any women who remainded out of work under the Nazi's rule didn't exist as far as the statistics were concerned. Anyone drafted in the army when WWII began was considered employed. Another reason for this is after the Nazi party took over, the unemployed were given work and if they refused were thrown in a concentration camp."  
  
Todd neglected to read this section.  
  
.:END:.  
  
(unless you read the book) 


End file.
